This document reports on the tenor and outcomes of the National Issues Forums held in 1991-92 on three issues. The report draws upon three resources: short participant questionnaires, descriptions from groups' convenors, and detailed analysis of the taped proceedings of 10 groups. The report is organized in three sections, each consisting of a report from the forums and excerpts from the public response to each issue by a group of representatives from the national media and Congress who met to review excerpts from the videotapes. The first forum report, "America's Role in the World: New Risks, New Realities," starts from the premise that what dominates people's minds when they think about shaping the U.S. role is the breakup of the Soviet Union. Discussion focuses on the following: United States as a solitary superpower; need for U.S. citizens to be much more frank about themselves and more objective about the rest of the world; the United States as leader, not policer, of the world; and need to concentrate on problems at home. The report on the second issue, "Energy Options: Finding a Solution to the Power Predicament," makes the point that the public's view as reflected in the forum discussions reveals a genuine concern about the energy crisis and how it affects and is affected by the national way of life. Topics include the cost of energy conservation, risks people are willing to live with, mistrust of nuclear energy, and need for a national energy policy. Forums held on the third issue, "The Boundaries of Free Speech: How Free Is Too Free?" indicate a worry about the precedents that any restriction would set. Focuses are sex and violence on television and in the movies and what to do about it, hateful speech, and children's right not to hear. (YLB)